Guess Who (12A)

Guess what... Simon (Ashton Kutcher) isn't just coming for dinner, he's coming for a fully fledged engagement party in the film Guess Who. And guess who isn't too happy about a young white boy taking to bed his beautiful black daughter Theresa (Zoe Saldana)... her daddy Percy (Bernie Mac).

Guess Who revolves around modernising the 1967 classic Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? Whilst this may seem (to the modern teen audience at which it is aimed) a complete rip off of Meet The Parents, Guess Who is in fact a quite sentimental comedy. Unfortunately, these two traits cause Guess Who to become confused over which genre it wants to place itself in, and this leads to a triumph of confusion.

The comic moments of the film have all been chopped up and thrown into the mediocre trailer. This humour is a mix of slapstick and situation, the real fun being in the situation, but this is dulled by scenes like the overlong go-karting sequence which adds no depth, only disappointment to the proceedings.

The relationship between Simon and Percy was marketed as being the film's key dynamic, but it isn't, the character development taking a more central role. Fortunately the film maker's evade the comedy trap of allowing only the grouchy older male to change in his feelings towards the younger male; here, Percy admits to his wife that she is in control of their relationship whilst simultaneously accepting Simon into the family. Yet, for this to be effective, more scenes of Marilyn (Judith Scot) exercising this 'control' are needed.

The script is not strong enough to carry over the scenes with heavy dialogue exchanges, the comedy much more reliant on the stylings of Mac and Kutcher. Whilst Mac does indeed make the reconciliation between himself and his wife funny, the conversation that follows it between Simon and Theresa has far less impact. The lead performers are not given enough to work with, and whilst Kutcher was funny in Cheaper By The Dozen, here his grown up school boy routine wears thin after a while, although not before he sprawls amusingly across the kitchen table after an uncomfortable dinner with Theresa's family.

The uncomfortable dinner, in which Kutcher delivers a series of amusing edgy jokes before making one that bombs completely is one of the film's best moments. More self conscious references to the 1967 predecessor are needed to make Guess Who a film with more depth, and perhaps, more comedy. Instead of the comedy complimenting the meaning of the film, it aims to have things the other way round, and fails. Kevin Rodney Sullivan (How Stella Got Her Groove Back) doesn't quite know which way to play this. It seems he started off by making a comedy but soon realised he was making a comment on modern black and white culture that isn't sunk in gun crime (refreshingly, no excuse is made for the Jones' family wealth) and then threw in some sentimentality with the hope of adding some emotional depth. With a more intelligent script, led by wit rather than farce, Guess Who could have told us a whole lot more than your average film. Instead, it second guesses itself and falls flat with both its emotion and its comedy.

Rating: 2/5

By Joshua Morrall